Smethwick Photographic Society is one of the leading photographic societies in Great Britain. Within its ranks there are more than 20 Associate and Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society. The Society also organises the Smethwick International Exhibition of Photography, one of the UK’s most prestigious International exhibitions.

I was recently invited to guest speak at Smethwick PS, and it was a real pleasure and an honour to have been invited to do so. Many of the members are world renown workers, and international photography judges.

M6 standstill

As is customary for the midlands, the M6 invited me to park up for part of the journey. The roads as ever, are really busy and subject to miles and miles of roadworks and tailbacks.

Setting up before the presentation.

I always try to support the home county international print exhibitions when I can, and Smethwick has been one of my favourite exhibitions for many years. In 2014 I was awarded the best author award in The 40th Smethwick International Exhibition of Photography, with 15 pieces of work accepted, winning 3 awards blog post here. For this I received the FIAP Blue Badge.

In 2014 I was awarded a Masters Distinction with The PAGB (MPAGB), and it really was an honour to present my evening to an audience which contained three of the six judges that assessed and awarded my MPAGB distinction award last year.

Excellent print hanging facilities at Smethwick

I delivered a projected presentation, which was a combination of photographs, A/V's and thoughts on photography trends and techniques. I also displayed over 80 exhibition prints around the excellent facilitated presentation room.

One of the things that really humbles me when doing a presentation, is the distance that some people are prepared to travel to attend the evening. There were at least 3 people that attended the evening that had travelled over 100 miles to be there. I really do appreciate the amount of effort people go to, and thank them for doing so.

A very special thank you goes out to Peter Gennard, and everyone at Smethwick for their hospitality. And to Tim Pile for delivering the closing thoughts on behalf of the Society, with some very touching words. A really great bunch of folk, and a great night I really enjoyed.